Patent Application
20150127132
This invention relates generally to custom fabrication of personal artifacts, and more specifically, the invention relates to method and system for facilitating custom-fit eye wear printing and fabrication.
The sense of sight in human beings is critical in gathering sensory information from the environment. Eighty percent of our brain structure is involved in processing vision and approximately thirty percent of our brain by mass is exclusively reserved for the processing of vision. We learn about our environment and world best through good vision at an early age and during childhood development. Impaired vision is detrimental, to health as it limits a wide range of sight-dependent activities, reduces quality of life, increases risk of other physical morbidity, restricts physical participation in our environment and impairs social interaction with other human beings. In addition, impaired vision reduces academic and educational potential in children and adults. Normal eyesight is necessary for an individual to acquire accurate visual information that eliminates or mitigates the detrimental effects in all spheres mentioned above.
The recognition of the importance of having normal vision from an early age in life is the basis for protocol assessments (or screenings) of children for deficits in vision. This is done, in the medical home, by a health care worker, or in school, by a layman or school-based health care worker. The medical home is system and caregivers therein who provide health and well being for a child and his or her family. Typically a primary care physician is a central coordinating tem member in a medical home. Out of these screening assessments, from between 10% and 25% children are found to ultimately require prescription eyeglasses in order to attain normal vision and in order to reach their full sight-based developmental potential. Most children who require eyeglasses have ‘garden variety’ refractive errors such as myopia, astigmatism, or hyperopia. These conditions cause functional deficits that are easily correctable. A minority but significant a group of other children has a medically based visual disorder such as unequal refractive errors, amblyopia (otherwise known as ‘lazy eye’), strabismus or structural occlusion or preclusion of the axis of a line of sight. The prescription of specially proposed eyeglasses forms a pillar in the successful treatment of almost all of these children. However, treatment effects are diminished if eyeglass frames do not fit properly and if eyeglasses slide off the nose, face or head of a child.
Furthermore, children have underdeveloped facial structure with various immature facial features. Therefore ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to eyewear does not work well for children. Pediatric ophthalmologists, optometrists, other health care providers, teachers and parents notoriously must deal with children who are constantly uncomfortable with their eyeglasses in part because their eyeglasses do not adequately and comfortably fit them. The eyeglass frames worn by children can be uncomfortable and misaligned on their face. They can be easily dropped, broken, bent, chewed or turned into reverse (vis-à-vis the lenses) by children. As a result children suffer needlessly. They do not receive safe, timely, comfortable vision correction treatment that they deserve. Some end up miss a one-time window of opportunity to learn to see and instead end up with permanent low vision—because they did not receive a properly fitting pair of eyeglasses.
Therefore it is a functional and medical requirement that eyeglass frames for children should be designed and dispensed appropriately. The frames should appropriately fit on the particular face of each child so that the child can enjoy proper vision and receive a superior standard of vision correction or treatment.
In light of the above discussion, there is a need in the art to provide a novel method and system for providing a custom-fit eye wear for not only children but also for adults.
In accordance with the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to attain proper fit for eyewear and other personal artifacts worn by users. Another object of the present invention is to provide customized design, customized manufacturing, and correlative distribution of eyeglasses and eyewear frames.
In one embodiment herein, a method for generating a custom-fit eyewear frame geometry. The method comprises the steps of: generating an eyewear frame geometry template having predefined measurements, capturing a multi-dimensional scanned image of head of a user, generating a uniform polygon mesh based on the scanned image, processing the polygon mesh to determine one or more landmarks on the scanned image, aligning the eyewear frame geometry template with the polygon mesh, and altering the predefined measurements of the frame geometry template manually or automatically based on the landmarks to obtain the custom-fit eyewear frame geometry.
The capturing of the multi-dimensional scanned image comprises at least one of: 2D Scanning, 3D Scanning, 3D Model manipulation, 3D Printing and Data analysis. Further, the multi-dimensional scanned image is captured by using a scanning device having at least one of: lasers, infrared technology, visible light technologies, and CCD image sensors.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a library is configured that contains one or more eyewear frame measurements including the measurements of eyewear frame geometry template. The landmarks are determined by identifying contact points between the scanned image and the frame geometry template. The contact points are customizable based on individual user data and include center of bridge of nose of the user, pupils of each eye, inner folds of each ear of the user, temporal bones, sphenoid, zygomatic arch, and other contact points that aid in aligning the frame geometry template.
In one embodiment of the present invention the frame geometry template is generated by using 3D rigging and CG animation technology. The frame geometry template is altered and the altered frame geometry template is folded into a closed position and components of the frame template geometry are joined as one mesh for subsequent 3D printing and fabrication. Further, the uniform polygon mesh is generated by cleansing redundant number of polygons from the polygon mesh.
In one embodiment of the present invention a system for generating custom-fit eyewear frame geometry is disclosed. The system comprises a memory to store an eyewear frame geometry template having predefined measurements. A scanner for capturing a multi-dimensional scanned image of head of a user is provided. A processor is configured to: (i) generate a uniform polygon mesh based on the scanned image, (ii) process the polygon mesh to determine one or more landmarks on the scanned image, (iii) align the eyewear frame geometry template with the polygon mesh, and (iv) alter the predefined measurements of the frame geometry template based on the landmarks to obtain the custom-fit eye wear frame geometry.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent in the description provided in this specification along with the figures.
Reference will be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanying figures. These figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Although the invention is generally described in the context of these embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to these particular embodiments.
Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the description of several views of the drawings.
The following detailed description is directed to certain specific embodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways as defined and covered by the claims and their equivalents. In this description, reference is made to the drawings wherein like parts are designated with like numerals throughout. Unless otherwise noted in this specification or in the claims, all of the terms used in the specification and the claims will have the meanings normally ascribed to these terms by workers in the art.
The present invention provides a novel and unique solution to provide a system and a method for generating custom-fit eyewear frame geometry that can be used for custom-fit eyewear frame modeling, fabrication and printing. While the present invention has applicability to at least the eyewear frames, the principles of the present invention are particularly applicable to all types of personal artifacts worn by adults and children, and all types of wearable healthcare devices, as well as other wearable devices that are required to be custom fit. For simplicity, the following description employ the terms ‘eyewear frames’, ‘glasses’ etcetera as an umbrella term to describe the embodiments of the present invention, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that the use of such term is not to be considered limiting to the scope of the invention, which is set forth by the claims appearing at the end of this description.
The memory 102 is configured to store a library 102a of one or more eyewear frame measurements including the eyewear frame geometry template. The eyewear frame geometry template has predefined or standard measurements as explained above. The standard measurements are predefined such that it roughly fits on the scanned image. The standard measurements or the predefined measurements may be sets of different measurements for adults and children. The scanned images are obtained by the scanner 106 that captures or scans the multi-dimensional scanned image using at least one of: 2D Scanning, 3D Scanning, 3D Model manipulation, 3D Printing and Data analysis techniques. Further, the scanner 106 is configured to use at least one of: lasers, infrared technology, visible light technologies, and CCD image sensors for capturing the scanned image of head of any user or patient.
The processor 104 processes data from the scanned image along with other data including user data for example, vision power of the user, and other user data such as user id, name, age, user preferences, location and address of the user etcetera. Further, the processor 104 may also process data including shapes, colors, size, and design of the frames or glasses. The display 108 facilitates a technician to visualize the geometry and scanned images of the user. The frame geometry is displayed on the display unit 108 and landmarks on the scanned image is identified and marked. The outputted custom-fit eye wear frame geometry 102 can be sent or exported to the 3D printing/modeling module 110 for 3D printing and fabrication. Various printing technologies and materials may be used for 3D printing to provide durability, flexibility, scratch or damage resistance, quality lenses for the custom-fit eyewear frames.
In one embodiment of the present invention, active scanning is performed live wherein head of the user or the subject is scanned in real time using the scanner 106 including a deployable scanning device such as a 3D Systems Sense or Microsoft Kinect. These devices 106 may use one or combination of IR, Lasers and/or CCD image sensors to build a multidimensional image scan 202. The resulting geometry needs to be of reasonable quality to subsequently determine the necessary contact points or landmarks for making custom-fit eyewear or other personal artifacts of the user.
In one embodiment of the present invention, passive scanning is performed by using still images of the user or the subject and by using the stereo photogrammetry software. In this process the scanned image is fit to a cage mesh comprising arbitrary polygon count. A polygon mesh 204 based on the scanned image 202 of the user is thus obtained. This polygon mesh 204 may be a multidimensional mesh and have arbitrary or random polygon count which can be processed by the processor 104 to obtain the uniform polygon mesh 204 of multi dimensions, preferably 3 dimensions. While processing the polygon mesh 204, all the redundant and undesired polygon count is cleansed from the mesh and thus a uniform or standardized polygon mesh 204 is obtained. Said uniform or standardized polygon mesh 204 will be later used for identifying and marking contact points or the ‘landmarks’. The cleansed mesh 204 can be introduced as a morph target. The landmarks may be designated manually or automatically on the scanned mesh 204.
Depending on the scanning method, artifacts and extraneous geometry may be present in the output geometry. In order to be ‘cleaned’ the head or target part of the user is isolated from any extra captured structures. Further, any holes appearing in the scanned image are filled by using the software or the processor. Furthermore, it has to be ensure that ear area of the scanned image is adequate to determine resting points of the eyewear frame.
The method of fitting the frame geometry template relies on specific landmarks 300 on the scanned image preferably a 3D scan to determine the necessary measurements and manipulations to perform. These contact points include the center of the bridge of the nose, the pupils of each eye, the inner folds of each ear (point where the arms of the glasses would rest), the Temporal bones or Sphenoid, Zygomatic Arch, as well as other intermediary points which can aid in aligning the template geometry.
The scanned image can be then loaded in as a morph target to an already landmark assigned geometry, to alter the polygon mesh accordingly. For a 3D scan coming from an active scanning process, the landmarks must be manually assigned to the geometry by selecting polygons or vectors. Eventually the processor of the system will be able to identify these points automatically using an algorithmic facial recognition approach.
The lens holder 402 of
The left and right temples or arms 404, 406 consist of the ‘ear’ pieces which are the structures which rest on the ear, as well as the hinges, which are created using a ribbed spine structure and a bend controller. The length and resting angle can be modified in order to achieve a comfortable rest position on the user's face. Respective locators are placed on the template geometry to help determine the overall alignment of the frame relative to the locators placed on the subject's scanned mesh. The template geometry is intended to be modular so that different styles can be interchanged according to the subject's comfort needs and tastes.
Further, arm length and angle adjustment of the frame geometry template is obtained once the lens holder has been properly aligned. The arm length is adjusted and tilted if necessary to allow the ends to rest properly around the ears.
Fine Alignment of the geometry template is obtained by using the landmarks on the bridge of the nose and the nose piece; morph targets are activated in step to change the shape of the nose piece to achieve a closer fit. A more accurate approach can be implemented using the contours of the nose on the scanned geometry as a cutting surface. In one embodiment, this is done by treating the nose and lens holder as arguments in a ‘Boolean difference’ operation. The resulting shape of the nose piece would theoretically be the same as the contours of the nose, providing a far superior fit compared to morph target manipulation alone. Any necessary adjustments of the frame geometry can be done using a number of sliders and controls. In another embodiment, the fine alignment section of the geometry template is obtained by ‘collision deformer’ operation. The collision deformer operation differs from the ‘Boolean difference’ operation that rather than removing and replacing polygons wherever the scanned mesh and glasses template intersect, an algorithm uses collision detection to “push out” vertices of the glasses template geometry until it closely matches the nose profile of the scanned face.
Therefore, custom-fit eye wear frame geometry may be generated by the embodiments of the invention as described above, and may be exported for printing and fabrication. The final custom-fit eye wear frame geometry may have the arms in a closed position to save space on the print bed, as well as introduce the necessary mechanical spring tension necessary to keep the frames on the face. This is done using a bend deformer that has been rigged into the hinge structure of each arm. Each component is then joined into one mesh using nested ‘Boolean union’ operations, smoothed and tessellated to meet STL 3D printing standards.
The I/O section 704 is connected to one or more user-interface devices (e.g., a keyboard 716 and a display unit 718), a disk storage unit 712, and a disk drive unit 720. Generally, in contemporary systems, the disk drive unit 720 is a DVD/CD-ROM unit capable of reading the DVD/CD-ROM medium 710, which typically contains program and data 722. Computer program products containing mechanisms to effectuate the systems and methods in accordance with the described technology may reside in the memory section 704, on a disk storage unit 712, or the DVD/CD-ROM medium 710 of such a system 700, or external storage devices made available via a cloud computing architecture with super computer program products including one or more database management products, web server products, application server products and other software components. The network adapter 724 is capable of connecting the computer system to a network via the link 714, through which the computer system can receive instructions and data.
Implementations of the disclosed invention are thus obtained within hardware and software that allows one to capture a 3-dimensional scan of a user's/child's head virtually fit the child with custom eyeglasses and then output the 3D digital mold of the eyeglasses, to a 3D printer. As a result, the child attains wearable prescription glasses that are custom made to measure and produced by the process of additive manufacturing. Various printing technologies and materials may be used for 3D printing to provide durability, flexibility, scratch or damage resistance, quality lenses for the custom-fit eyewear frames.
An implementation of the system is portable and affordable, so that a doctor could if needed manufacture eyeglasses while the patient waits. An alternative implementation allows printing clear optical grade prescription lenses as an integrated component of the eyeglasses frame. Yet alternative implementation uses non-additive fabrication techniques that optimize and improve the fit, function and cosmetic of child and adult eyeglasses.
Various implementations of the system disclosed herein provide various benefits listed below:
1. optimized, customized ad unique fit of eyeglasses to an individual's face, resulting in improved medical or optical treatment of visual disorders and improved visual function.
2. streamlined designed manufacture and distribution of eyeglasses affording improved availability to children and their families.
3. improved user experience in the selection (try-in), design and delivery of eyeglasses.
4. alignment of utility value of glasses design, manufacture and wear with the convergent trends of a) increased patient engagement with their health system and providers, b) internet technology that can be a suitable platform to channel this interactive engagement and c) Accountable Care Act (ACA) and Health Information Technology For Economic And Clinical Health (HITECH) framework legislation that codify and incentivize improved care co-ordination patient satisfaction and health care outcomes for health care providers.
While the system and methods disclosed herein are discussed in view of custom eyewear, it can also be used for other customer wear, such as helmets, hearing devices, headphones, etc. thus, 3D scan of a patient's ears may be used to generate 3D printing blue prints and used to generating hearing aids.
The above detailed description of embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while steps are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps in a different order. The teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems and various embodiments described herein can be combined to provide further embodiments. These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of the detailed description.
These and other changes can be made to the invention in light of the above detailed description. In general, the terms used in the following claims, should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above detailed description explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the invention encompasses the disclosed embodiments and all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under the claims.
While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, the inventors reserve the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.
This is a utility application based upon U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61/898,903 filed on or about Nov. 1, 2013. This related application is incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this application. If any conflict arises between the disclosure of the invention in this utility application and that in the related provisional application, the disclosure in this utility application shall govern. Moreover, the inventor(s) incorporate herein by reference any and all patents, patent applications, and other documents hard copy or electronic, cited or referred to in this application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61898903 | Nov 2013 | US |
